Baba ganoush

[AuntieEmma[$]]

I'm on a baba ganoush kick. It is so good! And healthy, too. It's my new favorite way to eat more veggies. Oddly, I don't like eggplant at all when it's just sitting on a plate, like in eggplant parmiagana. But when it's baba-cized, it tastes completely different.

[drmomentum[$]]

Oddly, I like eggplant parm but I can't get too excited about baba ganoush. It wasn't one of the dishes my mom made growing up and I prefer hummous as a dip. Which is strange, because my mom would prepare eggplant (batenjein) often.

My favorite hummous: hummous with fried bits of lamb on top. A loaf of Syrian bread and you've got good eatin'.

[hadassahchana[$]]

I like eggplant no matter how you fix it. Right now, I grill it every time I use the grill, and serve it with just a drizzle of olive oil and fresh crushed garlic. Yum!

JP, do you have a recipe for that hummous? It sounds really yummy!

[AuntieEmma[$]]

I'm neutral about hummous -- Even though I eat it fairly often, I don't get excited about it. It seems bland to me. I like it better when it has some other stuff in it. Trader Joe's has an artichoke hummous which is good.

Putting fried lamb on top sounds fantastic. I guess that would take it out of the health-food category, though.

What's Syrian bread like? Is that like pita bread?

[mtomm[$]]

Why would putting lamb on it make it not healthy? Seems like a great protein source to me. I wouldn't say the same about mutton though, Blech.

[drmomentum[$]]

Hummous is not health food, in my definition of health food. It's got a lot of fat in it from the tahini. Adding bits of fried lamb on top don't make that much of a difference.

I don't have a recipe; the first time I saw hummous prepared this way was in a Lebanese restaurant in Providence, RI called "Opa."

opa loc: Providence, RI - Google Maps

TasteRI.com: A Regional Guide to Dining Out from The Providence Journal and RI Monthly

I had the "Lebanese Dinner" option in which the chef brings out a whole bunch of yummy dishes in many courses.

Projo.com - Opa menu

In any case, I have tried to make it myself and it's not that hard.

First, you make hummous. I never buy the stuff because the stuff from the store is bland, like Emma says. Not nearly enough garlic. Maggie is the Hummous-maker in the family, using my aunt's recipe. Nobody has ever referred to her hummous as bland.

In any case, I usually make this as a leftover dish. Leftover hummous, leftover lam chops that were previously grilled. Cut up the lamb into small pieces, a little bit bigger than the pieces of pork you find in pork fried rice. Heat a pan with some olive oil. Fry the lamb briefly until it crisps up. Dump the contents of the pan, oil and all, on top of the hummous. Eat with Syrian bread.

I guess pita bread will have to do if you don't have Syrian bread. But a warmed flour tortilla is not bad either -- different but good.

-JP

[drmomentum[$]]

Non-bland Hummous recipe:

5 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup of water (mostly from the chickpea can, but some fresh)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
Can of Progresso chickpeas (19 oz)

Blend the other garlic, tahini, liquid and salt in a blender, then add the chickpeas. Blend until desired smoothness is achieved.
Garnish with olive oil and paprika.

It is important to use Progresso chickpeas. If you can't get Progresso I think there are ways to process your chickpeas to make them softer, but I would have to look them up because our family always uses Progresso.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

I rarely make stuff like that from scratch, but that recipe looks great.

I always thought that hummus was very much a health food. I've seen it recommended specifically for that. Chickpeas are supposed to be very good for you, and as far as the fat in the tahini, it's the "good" fat, like the fat that is in nuts, and (I think) is rich in Omega-3. We're supposed to be eating more of the "good" fat to balance out all the "bad" fat (i.e. animal fat) that we eat.

The reason I say putting the lamb in it would make it less of a health food is because meat is not a health food. It's something that from a health perspective, we should be eating less of. Not that I do -- I'm a meat eater, and I LOVE lamb -- but just from a health perspective, putting lamb in hummus would take what I've always thought of as a "pure" health food and turn it into something more ordinary.

BTW, speaking of eating lamb and hummus, I've also been on a bit of a shawarma kick lately. Shawarma is something I just discovered recently, even though there is a shawarma place in my neighborhood that I've passed for years without going inside. I recently had a dish there which was a humongous serving of lamb and beef (and a few veggies) sitting on a bed of hummus. Very tasty, but with way too much meat to count as a health food!

JP, I would try your recipe made with the leftover lamb chops, which sounds delicious, except that when I eat lamb chops there aren't any leftovers!! That's how much I like lamb.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Here's something I found that waxes rhapsodic about the health benefits of tahini:

Just some random site I found by googling said

Tahini’s most obvious contribution to one’s diet is the delicious flavor it lends to foods; but don’t forget, too, that research consistently finds health benefits from the regular consumption of nuts and seeds. One study found that when people ate sesame seeds, their plasma level of gamma tocopherol (a potent form of vitamin E) increased far more than when they ate equal amounts of gamma tocopherol from walnuts or soybean oil.[i] These findings are consistent with animal studies correlating sesame seeds with increased vitamin E activity in the body. Another noteworthy point is that sesame seeds contain plant estrogens called lignans. These compounds, and in particular sesamin, have antioxidant properties and may protect against cancer and heart disease. Additionally, foods containing tahini, such as hummus and lemon tahini salad dressing, can be chosen to replace less healthy fat sources such as butter and certain oil-based dressings. Like other nut and seed butters, the majority of fat calories in tahini is derived from a heart-healthier unsaturated fat.

Lay It On Me! Lemon Tahini Dressing

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I love eggplant.

I don't like baba ganoush.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

MJ, we should go to a buffet together. You could eat all the eggplant, and I could eat all the baba ganoush, and it would work out perfectly.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Nah, we'd come to blows over the hummus and pita bread.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Hey, that pita bread is MINE!

[theworm[$]]

I LOVE Baba!
I love all eggplant, but Baba ganoush - YUMMY! I much rather have the baba than hummus - and I like hummus.
So, JP - care to post a good baba recipe. I like it when it's a bit smokey!
Now I want some!

[drmomentum[$]]

Sadly, I never make Baba Ganoush, so I have no recipe. I never learned to appreciate the stuff. I don't know why my family never makes it. And I never even heard of shawarma until I was a young adult.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

JP, any tips on buying tahini? Do you get any particular brand, or do you try to find a place where they make it fresh? What do you do with the leftovers -- after you've put your half-cup in the hummus, what do you do with the rest of it -- will it keep, in the refrigerator, for a while?

[drmomentum[$]]

It does keep in the fridge for a while. I think the main worry is that over time oil would go rancid, but, like peanut butter, it takes a little while for that to happen. I treat it a lot like I would natural or home-made peanut butter.

I get ours at a Lebanese market in the small city next door; it comes in a plastic jar. I'm not sure where it comes from originally. It's not made there.

I wonder how hard/easy it is to make one's own tahini. Hmmm.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

One more question -- do you use fresh lemon juice that you make by squeezing lemons, or do you use stuff that you buy?

[drmomentum[$]]

We mostly use fresh lemon, but in a pinch have used "from concentrate." It's still good with the "from concentrate" stuff, but I recommend fresh.

[drmomentum[$]]

Oh, and you want to serve this to people who definitely like garlic.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Doesn't everybody?

I think I'm going to try this! Even though I'm not a cook. It doesn't sound too hard. And it sounds very tasty! Now I just have to find a place that sells tahini.

[lynnzop[$]]

I'm so glad I popped into this thread. I made a grocery list from memory and knew I was forgetting something important.

Lemon and lime juice. Have to clean that tarnish off the silver somehow.

Back to your discussion on baba whatever (I'm going to have to google what that is, I keep thinking about elephants, Babar, I guess....)

[drmomentum[$]]

It's a middle-eastern roasted eggplant dip. With garlic.

Kinda like hummous but with eggplant.

-JP